Relations have improved significantly since Blinken’s last visit 10 months ago, after the transit of a Chinese spy balloon through the United States sparked an unusually broad national blowback against China’s spying activities. China. Since then, conversations have become much more routine, allowing the world’s two largest economies and rival superpowers to begin managing their strained but interdependent relationship again.
Blinken was scheduled to meet with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, for more than six hours on Friday, giving the sides ample time to air their differences on a host of issues, including reviving military-to-military talks and the country’s frosty relations. China with Taiwan. Beijing has also complained about U.S. efforts to deny China access to advanced semiconductors that would enable it to advance in artificial intelligence that could have military applications.
Blinken spoke Thursday about “the need for direct engagement, sustained engagement, talking to each other, exposing our differences that are real, seeking to overcome them,” as well as looking for ways to cooperate.
“We have an obligation to our people and, in fact, an obligation to the world, to manage relations between our two countries responsibly,” he said during a meeting with the Communist Party secretary of Shanghai, Chen Jining.
America’s top diplomat will also likely meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, although such conversations are usually cut off only at the last minute. Xi and President Biden spoke on the phone earlier this month and clashed over export controls, which the Biden administration views as necessary to prevent U.S. technology from harming U.S. security and Beijing complains that it is simply an effort to restrict its economic growth.
washingtonpost
